You seem very knowledgeable about 20th century european history in general.. one thing I've wondered for a while is who is the most responsible for the holocaust and how far it was taken? Hitler or Himmler? From what I've read Hitler didn't get too personally involved in the killing machine, that was mostly left up to Himmler. Any idea/opinion?
Yeah, but mostly because I like to read. You want to know about the war and esp. Stalin, Simon Sebag(!?) Montifiore has written some amazing books with access to recently unclassified documents. Absolutely fascinating is Stalin's early life!
Oh, Hitler was the main engineer of the Holocaust, but he was 'clever' enough not to have his signature on any of the documents, especially the Wannsee ones. There's an HBO movie called 'Conspiracy' with Kenneth Branagh as Heydrich which is a pretty sober look at how the Holocaust was first engineered. Worth a watch. Himmler brought a functionary's enthusiastic touch to this enormity.